1. Am I legally obliged to have a safeguarding policy for children and adults?

There is no legal requirement to have a policy in place but the Charity Commission expects organisations that serve or may serve children and/ or adults at risk of abuse to have safeguarding policies and procedures in place. Trustees are required to inform the commission if they don’t have them. The Charity Commission would regard the absence of polices as a serious incident and would investigate. Your insurance company might also be concerned if you don’t have a policy and you could be breaching your policy if you do not have safeguarding arrangements in place.